Classic Poem

Angels and devils saw I once
Fighting in heaven.
The devils were innumerable,
The angels, seven.

Seven shafts of light they held
That pierced the sky;
But the massed army rattled shields,
Thundering horribly.

" We hold all heaven, " they yelled,
" Break up their darts;
Shall immemorial darkness yield
To milky hearts?

" Before Time was we were,
God is less old.
Hie you pale-livered ones
Back to your fold!

" You cry " Love's Light!" Begone!
The moon is here.
Her gentle, decorous ways
To us are dear.

" She heats no fevered blood,
She comes and goes.
She loves the lily well,
But hates the rose.

" And ye would have the rose
Grow twice as red,
Till all the earth became
One flower bed:

" A wilderness of flowers
Praising your God:
Aye, even lascivious blooms
On Aaron's rod.

" While we would have the earth
As clean as she;
White as the shroud of death,
From sin as free. "

But the seven shafts were loosed,
They cleft night's hosts,
And gibbering devils fled
With pale moon ghosts,

Crying, " Alack! Alack!
Lo! Love is free.
Now will the earth bring forth
Its infamy. "

Then robed in dazzling gold
The Lord of Love
Lifted his kingly head
Earth's rim above;

And swift the rosy earth
Was like a bride
Waiting her Lord of Life,
With arms stretched wide.